Developer Diaries

MYST DS Developer Diary

With the upcoming release of the seminal classic MYST on the DS, we found ourselves wondering if the game would actually work on those two oh-so-bright screens. After all, this is the title that dragged us kicking and screaming into the age of optical data discs. Fortunately, we got a chance to talk to Hoplite Research's Manny Granillo, the executive producer on MYST DS, and find out exactly how he and his team are bringing a classic into the future.

Bringing MYST to life on the DS was one of the most exciting and enlightening processes I have encountered in my career. With so many possible routes, we looked closely at how we could take this family classic and make it accessible once more. After assembling a solid team of industry veterans, I began to analyze the elements that made MYST one of the greatest games of all time. The initial design conventions did not apply as we could not break the storyline or the original "experience."

The Nintendo DS was a natural platform for MYST because of its touch screen and stylus interface. The one major element that was missing was the legendary mouse cursor. This of course would make the original game much more difficult, without the helpful hints that the changing mouse pointer gave the adventurer. We decided that adding a toolbar would balance the loss of the cursor and also highlight the benefits of the DS platform for adventure gaming. Key to determining what "tools" to create was playing through the game and focusing on what players would need to venture forth.

After several revisions, we settled on the following tools:

Magnifying Glass: to take a closer look at puzzles or items
Note Pad: to make quick notes that will be saved in your game
Camera: to take that quick snapshot of a key clue or solution to a puzzle
Map Display: allows the adventurer's to see the world they are in without telling them where they are exactly

Even then we had to balance the tools' abilities so as to aid the adventurer but not alter the game experience. As powerful as the tools may be, they had to be tempered.